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Starfield skills explained: Full list, skill tree and where best to spend skill points
Everything you need to know about skills, including Physical, Social, Combat, Science and Tech
Bethesda
- Toby Saunders
Published: Friday, 15 September 2023 at 12:50 pm
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Starfield skills are hugely important to determining your playstyle and how your experience in the humongous space RPG plays out. Where to start though?
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For anyone who has played Fallout or Skyrim, Starfield's skills setup won't be that much of a surprise. Split into five main categories, Starfield skills include Physical, Social, Combat, Science and Tech. Each category then has its own sub-sections with four tiers available. The more you invest in each section, the more skills are unlocked.
The problem is that every level gained only earns one skill point. Naturally, this takes longer the more you play too, so deciding where to spend skill points early will help your experience in the long run. To make things clearer, here's our Starfield skill point recommendations as well as a round-up of every skill in the game.
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What are the best skills to spend points on in Starfield?
Starfield scanning skill. Bethesda
While this is a tricky question to answer, the best Starfield skills to invest points on at the start of the game are those that improve core abilities including health, oxygen and carrying capacity. We strongly recommend you unlock Wellness, Weight Lifting and Fitness as soon as possible.
Other skills that are essential to learn are Persuasion and Commerce, which should make buying and selling better, and make situations more likely to go your way through dialogue. Targeting Control Systems, Piloting and Boost Pack Training are other skills worth investing in. These will improve your ship piloting and combat no end, as well as your ability to move about the massive areas of the game with a jetpack. Outside of these more general skills, it’s difficult to know where to go next. That, we’re afraid, is all up to you. It all depends on what kind of play style you’re looking for.
There are plenty of options, with five skill trees available: Combat, Tech, Science, Social and Physical. Each tree contains multiple skills across four tiers – Novice, Advanced, Expert and Master – and each skill can also be mastered with four ranks on them all.
The good news is that there is no maximum level cap in Starfield, so you can learn and master every single skill in a playthrough if you wish. Now, it’s time to learn what each of the skills are and what they all do.
Read more on Starfield:
- Starfield review - our final verdict
- Starfield missions list - how far are you?
- Starfield tips and tricks - how to get started
- Starfield romance - all potential relationships
- Starfield character creation - all your options explained
- Starfield digipick - how to lockpick
- How long is Starfield? The hours you'll need
- Will Starfield ever come to PS5? Developer comments
- Starfield cast - all voice actors
- Starfield companions - who to recruit
- Starfield soundtrack - how to listen
- Starfield storage guide - don't be overburdened
- Starfield FOV - change your point of view
- Starfield FPS - developers explain 30fps
- Starfield PC requirements - specs needed
- Starfield performance - potential fixes
- Starfield factions - all possible groups
Starfield skill tree explained
Starfield skills science. Bethesda
Upon the opening hours of Starfield, the game will introduce you to its skill tree found within the main menu. This is split across five sections: Physical, Social, Combat, Science and Tech. There are then four tiers underneath each of these sections, with the first one unlocked for free. Four points are needed to be invested to unlock tier two, eight points are needed for tier three and 12 points are needed for the fourth and final tier.
Every skill has four ranks to them, however, to unlock each subsequent one a challenge must be completed. For instance, if you want to maximise Persuasion, you will need to successfully persuade NPCs multiple times. Or if you want to reach the top level with Weight Lifting, you will need to spring while carrying 75 per cent of your weight for a certain distance. Each one varies, but it's worth hanging onto skill points if you want to hit that top level fast.
Full list of Starfield skills and what they do
There are 82 skills in Starfield to learn and master. Here’s the complete list of Starfield skills and what each one does:
Combat
Novice
- Ballistics | Increases damage done by ballistic weapons
- Dueling | Increases damage done by melee weapons
- Lasers | Increases damage done by laser weapons
- Pistol Certification | Increases damage done by pistols
- Shotgun Certification | Increases damage done by shotguns
Advanced
- Demolitions | Increases damage and blast radius of explosives
- Heavy Weapon Certification | Increases damage done by heavy weapons
- Incapacitation | Increases damage done by electromagnetic weapons
- Rifle Certification | Increases damage dealt by rifles
Expert
- Marksmanship | Increases chances of critical hits with non-automatic ranged weapons
- Particle Beams | Increased damage dealt by particle beam weapons
- Rapid Reloading | Weapons reload faster
- Sniper Certification | Scoped weapons have increased steadiness
- Targeting | Increases accuracy and range when aiming without looking down the sights
Master
- Armour Penetration | Attacks do more damage to enemy armour
- Crippling | Increases chances to down enemies
- Sharpshooting | Increases critical hit damage with ranged weapons
Physical
Novice
- Boxing | Increases damage dealt by unarmed attacks
- Fitness | Increases your total oxygen
- Stealth | Gives you a stealth meter and makes you harder to detect while sneaking
- Weight Lifting | Increases carrying capacity
- Wellness | Increases maximum health
Advanced
- Energy Weapon Dissipation | Reduces energy damage taken
- Environmental Conditioning | Increases resistance to environmental damage
- Gymnastics | Unlocks combat slide and reduces fall damage. Further ranks improve move speed and firing stability in zero-g, and improves your jump height
- Nutrition | Increases the effectiveness of food and drink
- Pain Tolerance | Reduces physical damage taken
Expert
- Cellular Regeneration | Increases chances to recover from injuries naturally
- Decontamination | Increases chances to recover from infections naturally
- Martial Arts | Increases chances to land critical hits with melee and/or unarmed attacks
Master
- Concealment | Adds new stealth abilities: Don’t set off enemy mines, running while sneaking doesn’t affect stealth, blend into the environment when sneaking and remaining still, distant enemies lose sight of you when in stealth. Increases sneak attack damage
- Neurostrikes | Increases chances of stunning enemies with unarmed attacks
- Rejuvenation | Regenerate your health quickly outside of battle and slowly in battle
Science
Novice
- Astrodynamics | Improves grav jump range and reduces jump drives fuel cost
- Geology | Get better resources from surface objects
- Medicine | Healing items perform better
- Research Methods | The number of resources needed to craft items and complete research is reduced
- Surveying | Adds more zoom and scan distance to the hand scanner
Advanced
- Botany | Get better resources from plants, cultivate some of them at your outposts and learn more quickly about them from scanning
- Scanning | Detect rarer resources and learn more information about ships in space
- Spacesuit Design | Craft better spacesuits and mods
- Weapon Engineering | Craft better weapon mods
- Zoology | Harvest better resources from creatures (can do it without harming them) and adds the ability to create animal resources at your outposts. Also increases scanning capabilities on creatures
Expert
- Astrophysics | Can scan the moons of your current planet. Increases chances of discovering a trait while scanning
- Chemistry | Lets you create better chems and research more of them
- Outpost Engineering | Make better Outpost modules and research more of them
Master
- Aneutronic Fusion | Increases the units of power your ship reactors can produce
- Planetary Habitation | Increases the number of outposts you can build and where you can build them
- Special Projects | Allows the research of special projects and the ability to craft better manufactured components. Rank four increases the chance of Outpost extractors producing additional resources
Social
Novice
- Commerce | Cost of buying items costs less, get more credits from selling items
- Gastronomy | Craft and research better food and drinks
- Persuasion | Increases your chances of success when persuading someone
- Scavenging | Increases the chances of finding extra credits, ammo, and items when searching containers
- Theft | Unlocks pickpocketing, higher ranks increases the chances of successful pickpocketing
Advanced
- Deception | Ships that are a little stronger than yours will automatically surrender to piracy demands, reduces chances of being caught smuggling contraband
- Diplomacy | Force NPCs to stop fighting for a while
- Intimidation | Force NPCs to flee for a while
- Negotiation | Unlocks bribery, higher ranks reduce bribery costs
- Isolation | Do more damage and gain more resistance when you’re wearing a spacesuit and helmet when companions or crew aren’t around
Expert
- Instigation | Force NPCs to attack their allies for a while
- Leadership | Improves companions: Gain affinity faster, have increased health and carry capacity, can occasionally heal you, doubles their combat and physical skills, have a chance to pick themselves up if downed
- Outpost Management | Allow you to create more Cargo links, Robots and Crew at Outposts. Rank four makes Outpost extractors twice as quick
Master
- Manipulation | Force NPCs to obey your commands
- Ship Command | Increases number of active crew members you can have
- Xenosociology | Force alien creatures to stop fighting, flee, attack their allies and obey your commands for a while
Tech
Novice
- Ballistic Weapons Systems | Increases ballistic ship weapon damage and improves recharge time and cost to use in targeting mode in higher ranks
- Boost Pack Training | Unlocks the ability to use jetpacks (higher ranks makes them more efficient)
- Piloting | Unlocks the ability to use ship thrusters and improves them (also unlocks ability to pilot Class B and C ships at higher ranks)
- Security | Lets you hack more complex locks
- Targeting Control Systems | Unlocks ship targeting ability, improves ship targeting in higher ranks
Advanced
- Energy Weapon Systems | Energy weapons on your ship deal more damage and cost less to use in targeting mode
- Engine Systems | Increase your ships top speed. At rank four your ship’s shields will occasionally resist all damage received
- Payloads | Increases carrying capacity of your ship’s cargo holds
- Shield Systems | Better shields for your ship
Expert
- Missile Weapon Systems | Increases damage dealt by ship missile weapons and reduces cost of using them in targeting mode
- Particle Beam Weapon Systems | Increases damage dealt by ship particle beam weapons and reduces cost of using them in targeting mode
- Robotics | Deal more damage to robots and turrets. Can stop them to stop fighting, to flee, attack their allies and obey you
- Starship Design | Allows the installation of better ship modules
- Starship Engineering | Speeds up the repair time of all ship systems and increases damage mitigation. At rank four repairing one block will automatically repair the entire system of your ship every now and then
Master
- Automated Weapon Systems | Increases damage done by automated ship weapons, reduces costs in targeting mode, reduces damage taken when in targeting mode, increases critical hit chance in targeting mode, and, finally, increases recharging speed and damage while in targeting mode
- Boost Assault Training | You deal damage to nearby enemies when you boost with your jetpack and can set them on fire. At higher ranks you can knock down enemies, hover while aiming down sights and time slows down when you’re hovering
- EM Weapon Systems | Increases damage done by electromagnetic ship weapons and reduces cost in targeting mode
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Authors
Toby SaundersFreelance Writer
Toby Saunders is a freelance writer specialising in Video Game journalism. He has a wealth of experience in the field and is published on many different websites including PCGamesN, Nintendo Life and Pocket Tactics. He has a degree in Film Studies (he gets to write about Film and TV occasionally, too).
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